NOVA

As entertaining as it is informative, NOVA explores headline-grabbing innovations and discoveries from our past, present and future, demystifying the science and technology along the way while highlighting the human side of the people "who make science happen."

As entertaining as it is informative, NOVA explores headline-grabbing innovations and discoveries from our past, present and future, demystifying the science and technology along the way while highlighting the human side of the people "who make science happen."

The ancient Maya civilization of Central America left behind a riddle: an intricate and mysterious hieroglyphic script carved on stone monuments and painted on pottery and bark books. Because the invading Spanish suppressed nearly all knowledge of how the script worked, unlocking its meaning posed one of archaeology's fiercest challenges. Until now. NOVA presents the inside story of how the decoding was done, told by the experts at the center of one of archaeology's greatest detective stories.

Tom Magliozzi has a problem. The wacky co-host of NPR's Car Talk needs to replace his beloved 1952 MG roadster. But where do you turn to in today's car market? Is new technology about to transform the way we drive? Join Tom and brother Ray as they take a light-hearted but shrewd look at America's four-wheeled future. "Click and Clack" explore everything from a glitzy Detroit auto show to a green think tank in Colorado.

Narrated by Harrison Ford. At age 78, E.O. Wilson is still going through his 'little savage' phase of boyhood exploration of the natural world. NOVA profiles this soft-spoken Southerner and Professor Emeritus at Harvard, who is an acclaimed advocate for ants, biological diversity, and the controversial extension of Darwinian ideas to human society.

Long ago in the age of dinosaurs, a volcano in eastern China erupted and buried a host of strange creatures in ash, creating exquisite fossils that preserved a big surprise--many dinosaurs were covered in feathers. In The Four-Winged Dinosaur, NOVA investigates the most bizarre of these feathered dinosaurs, which has rekindled a fierce, decades-long debate over the origin of bird flight. The central character in this drama is a strange little dinosaur with wings on its legs as well as its arms. The pigeon-sized Microraptor is the smallest adult dinosaur ever found, perhaps the first known tree-dweller. But could it really fly? NOVA assembles a team of top paleontologists, aeronautical engineers, and paleo-artists to reconstruct Microraptor and build a sophisticated model for a wind tunnel experiment. The results have surprising implications for long-accepted ideas about how winged flight began.

Millions remember the countdowns, launchings, splashdowns and parades as the U.S. raced the USSR to the Moon in the 1960s, but few know that both superpowers also ran parallel covert space programs to launch military astronauts on spying missions. For the first time, an elite corps of ex-U.S. military astronauts tells the story of this other, top-secret space race, which might easily have turned into a shooting war in orbit. While the Apollo astronauts enjoyed ticker-tape parades, U.S. astrospies trained in total obscurity. Meanwhile, the Soviets actually built three manned spy stations. NOVA gains first-time access to a surviving Almaz station in a restricted Russian space facility, where an ex-cosmonaut demonstrates the high-powered spy cameras that were trained on U.S. cities. With a cannon designed to destroy hostile satellites--or attack American astrospies--Almaz was probably the only manned spacecraft ever equipped for space war.

What does it take for the average person to run one of the world's toughest races? NOVA finds out in a program that's both a human story and an intriguing scientific exploration of the way our bodies respond to intense exercise demands. Filmed in cooperation with the Boston Athletic Association, NOVA has been granted unprecedented access to the Boston Marathon course and will take viewers on a unique adventure inside the human body. Every year thousands of athletes from across the globe flock to Boston to run the city's marathon, known worldwide as the ultimate test of stamina and endurance. In the summer of 2006, NOVA began following 13 novices as they took the first step toward completing the 26.2-mile race in April 2007. The group of participants includes a variety of people from diverse backgrounds - a young woman running in memory of her mother, who died in a tragic car accident; a working single mom; even a former NFL linebacker - the unifying element is that not one of them is currently a runner. Over the nine-month training period, exercise and nutrition scientists and doctors at Tufts University use sophisticated technology to monitor the physical transformations that the participants undergo. Intimate interviews reveal the highs and lows along the way. The experience will demand a transformation of mind and body; NOVA cameras will be there, following every step.

For 25 centuries, the Parthenon has been shot at, set on fire, rocked by earthquakes, looted for its sculptures, and disfigured by misguided restorations. Now, a team of architects and engineers is investigating the many mysteries of this icon of Western Civilization: How did the ancient Greeks design and build their masterpiece so quickly? How did they achieve such precision and perfection without modern tools and architectural aids that we take for granted today, such as comprehensive plans or drawings? With unprecedented access to the Greek government's Acropolis Restoration Project, which has been restoring the Parthenon for over three decades, NOVA takes viewers inside the minds of the ancient Greeks as they created their most enduring architectural miracle. Secrets of the Parthenon features suspenseful action as Greek master craftsmen struggle with 10-ton blocks and strive to rediscover the lost tools and techniques of their ancestors. And it ends in a final dazzling discovery, as a trick of sunlight reveals a hidden carving that solves the last, most baffling riddle of all.

A difficult journey that begins in loneliness and shame for thousands of Ethiopian women ends in a productive new life and hope for the future in this award-winning film. Shot against a starkly beautiful landscape, A Walk to Beautiful shares the inspiring stories of three women, rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, who leave home in search of treatment for obstetric fistula. In a courageous attempt to reclaim their lives, these women embark on a remarkable journey.